


They Also Serve Who Only Lie In Wait

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Read My Lips [14]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-27 17:29:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6293350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tag to SGA Ep 1x10 The Storm; from the <a class="i-ljuser-profile" href="http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/">comment_fic</a> prompt: "Author's choice, author's choice: <i>I’m not falling behind or running late / I’m not standing still / I am lying in wait</i>. John and Evan were trying to uncouple the last grounding station when Evan heard over the radio that a Genii strike force had invaded the city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They Also Serve Who Only Lie In Wait

John was hurrying through the corridors of Atlantis, right on Evan's heels. He knew Rodney was frustrated with him, that if someone else had stayed behind they'd be able to get the grounding stations uncoupled faster, but during times like this, Evan stuck to his side like glue. Even though there were no Wraith or other enemies to be wary of, the storm of the century was headed straight for Atlantis, and while the city had no shields, it was in a state of emergency. During times of emergency, Evan and John had strict protocols to follow. Evan was to protect John at all costs, because he had the super-gene.

Zelenka and Kusanagi and Parrish had been horrified that John wasn't gating off-world with the rest of the expedition to stay safe, but John had to stay behind to run the yield calculations. He'd done it a dozen times for Rodney in the space of ten minutes; with all the lightning being generated by the storm, the shields should hold. Rodney had insisted John stay with him in case he needed other emergency calculations done, and after much badgering Elizabeth had allowed it, so long as Evan stayed as well. There was no question about Evan staying.

Evan halted abruptly, hand going to his earpiece, chin tilted down while he listened. He still had one hand on his gun, so he wasn't telling John what he was hearing. John gritted his teeth.

"What?" he asked, motions small and agitated.

Evan signed as he listened. "Incoming wormhole. Genii injured gating in."

John remembered the Genii, the Amish-looking people who'd been secretly building nukes they hoped to use either on the Wraith or their enemies. Their leader had basically ignored him the entire time he was on the planet, treated him like some kind of pariah. Evan had informed him, once they were back on Atlantis, that the Genii were intolerant of disability and had a child been born like John, it would have been left to die. As much as their bigotry had seriously irked him, he didn't wish them harm.

"Wraith-related?"

Evan shrugged. "Not sure yet. Come on, we'd better get to the last grounding station." He turned to go, signaled for John to follow.

In addition to ASL, Evan had taught him all of the military hand-signs so when they were on the march off-world John could follow military directions without Evan having to lift both hands off his weapon.

They were at the transporter when Evan paused again, lifted a hand to his earpiece.

"What's going on?" John asked.

Evan shook his head, didn't answer, listened. The grim expression that crossed his face made John's stomach turn.

"Is everything all right?"

"Genii strike team has infiltrated Atlantis. Let's go."

"Go where?" John asked, but he followed Evan. His heart thumped oddly.

"We need to talk to Major Teldy," Lorne said. Her name-sign was actually _Wonder Woman_ with a T, but neither of them had ever dared tell her that. He stepped into the transporter, and John followed him. They emerged in the jumper bay, where John opened the nearest jumper with the merest flicker of his mind.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"Open comms," Lorne said. He had the ATA gene, and a fairly strong expression of it, but no one's was as strong as John's.

John settled into the co-pilot chair and summoned the HUD with a thought. Evan remained standing, scanning the jumper bay behind them, alert.

But then he began speaking and signing to Teyla, Teldy, Beckett, and Ford. They were stuck on the mainland with the young Athosian hunters they'd rescued. Their plan was to ride out the storm in the jumper and then come back to the city. Evan told them about the Genii incursion but advised them to stay put if the weather made it too dangerous for them to fly the jumper back to the city.

Genii. On Atlantis. John closed his eyes and took a deep breath, reached out to Atlantis. Rodney had cut power to a lot of systems to save the ZPM and generators, had cut even more power to make sure that any power that struck would go straight to the shields and primary systems protecting the Control Tower. Atlantis was softer, quieter, but still very much awake and alive and aware.

 _We have enemies,_ John said to her. _Help us, please._

Her response was soft, like cotton wool, like a cool breeze on his skin, not her usual warmth. _I am weak and tired, but I will protect you, Imperator._

 _Thank you._ John opened his eyes. Evan was staring at him oddly, the way everyone did whenever he connected with Atlantis.

"They have Weir and McKay hostage," Evan said. "We need to help them."

"How?" John asked. His heart was thumping oddly in his chest again, and he was light-headed from the information Atlantis was streaming into his head, life-signs and locations. For now the enemy was in the Control Tower.

"You're certified with both a P-90 and M9," Evan said. "Let's get to the armory."

John nodded, because Evan was right – John had made sure to certify for gate travel as far back as when he was under Cheyenne Mountain even though he was pretty sure he'd never get to go through the gate. He'd carried a P-90 and an M9 the few times he'd been allowed off-world. But he wasn't a soldier. He wasn't –

"Keep up," Evan signed. John wasn't used to Evan not looking at him as he signed, not having any facial expression. This was Evan the soldier; his role as interpreter had taken a back seat.

As John hurried to keep up with him, his mind spun. Evan was the only solider on Atlantis right now. Rodney was no fighter, and neither was Elizabeth. Sure, John was probably a better shot than Rodney, but –

Evan paused again, head tilted back, like he was listening to something coming from above. John lifted his head, spun, searched the ceiling for any sign of danger.

And then Atlantis was beaming the words straight into his mind. Rodney had triggered the city comms. The enemy wanted all of the C4, their medical supplies, and the Wraith drive.

The words cut off at the same time as Evan took off running, and John scrambled to keep up with him. He went running with Evan every morning, was in the same physical condition of all of the soldiers, but every time he pictured Rodney and Elizabeth trapped in the Control Tower with weapons pointed at him, his hands began to shake.

Evan shuffled them into the transporter, and they emerged down the corridor from the armory. As soon as they were in the armory, Evan directed Sheppard to arm himself with a P-90, an M9, and two extra clips for each. They both grabbed backpacks. Evan buckled John into a tac vest while John bounced on his toes like a racehorse chomping at the bit. Couldn't stand still. Couldn't slow down.

"We have to take the C4," Evan said, pointed to the marked crates. "We can't let the enemy get their hands on it."

John took a deep breath and nodded. He started to reach for one end of the crate, but Evan shook his head.

"No. We have to have our hands free. Come on. Load up your backpack."

John nodded and hurried to obey. He made sure he could see Evan out of the corner of his eye at all times. He didn't dare stand still, didn't dare get left behind.

And then Atlantis warned him – the Genii were on the move.

John clapped his hands, and Evan turned, raised his eyebrows. The lack of expression on his face was disconcerting.

But John signed anyway. "Genii are coming. We need to go."

Evan frowned. "What? How do you know?"

John pointed at the ceiling. "Atlantis."

Grim understanding lit in Evan's eyes. "Let's go." He started for the door, paused again, and not for the first time, John cursed his own deafness.

But Evan wasn't listening to yet another transmission; he was taking his walkie-talkie and drawing on it with a piece of chalk. _Talk_ and an arrow pointing at the talk button. He set the walkie in one of the empty C4 crates, and then they ran.

They headed down the hall in the opposite direction the Genii were approaching from.

"Where should we hide the C4?" Evan had stopped speaking altogether, used only his hands.

Silence was a bonus between them; the Genii would have nothing to overhear except maybe their boot steps. John expanded his awareness to feel for more footsteps than their own. Atlantis continued to feed him information about there the Genii were coming from.

And she had a brilliant solution for the C4.

"In one of the jumpers," John said. "None of them have the gene. They can't open it without either you or me."

Evan nodded. That would force the enemy to keep at least one of them alive.

One.

John looked down at the P-90 strapped his tac vest. Was he ready to use it? To shoot at another human? A Wraith was one thing, but –

No. These people had Elizabeth and Rodney, were holding them hostage. And that was unacceptable.

"They don't know either of us are here," John said. "We can use that to our advantage."

Evan nodded. "I know. I need you to stay with me, be my back-up." They headed for the jumper bay once more. While Evan stowed the C4 in one of the jumpers, John grabbed a life-signs detector.

He showed it to Evan.

They studied the number of life signs in the Control Tower grimly, the number of other life signs spread out through the corridors, looking for them. Some life signs were headed for the remaining grounding station, the one Evan and John hadn't managed to uncouple before the unscheduled off-world activation was called in.

Evan nodded. "Here's what we need to do." And he began to outline a plan to slowly draw the Genii forces away from the control tower in small groups so the two of them could pick them off more easily.

Pick them off.

Kill them.

John's stomach turned, but he curled his hands tight around the P-90 so they wouldn't shake more.

Atlantis murmured to him once more, and he said, "I have an idea."

"What?"

"I can make Atlantis hide me."

"Hide you how?"

"Turn me invisible on the life-signs detector." John pointed to the device in Evan's hands.

Evan's eyes narrowed. He'd wondered how John could so thoroughly evade tracking sometimes even though Evan had a reputation on Atlantis for being the man who knew everyone and everything, more than Teldy's XO Captain Stackhouse.

John watched Evan think, calculate, shelve that knowledge for extended discussion later and deploy it only tactically for now.

"Turn yourself invisible. Have Atlantis help you get up to the uncoupling station before me. Hide yourself. Wait for the Genii ambush team and me. We'll turn the ambush back on them."

John nodded.

Evan said, "I'll signal you through your band."

John nodded and turned to go. He had a tiny rumble pack built into his watch. It functioned as his alarm clock and, on other occasions, as an emergency alert system. As he hurried through the corridors, coordinating his path with feedback from Atlantis to avoid Genii recon patrols, his heart roared in his ears. He was going to do this, was going to help Evan fight off the invaders.

He'd never done this before.

 _Don't be afraid,_ Atlantis said, trying to soothe his racing pulse and shallow breaths. _I'll protect you._

That wasn't what John was afraid of. He'd only taken a human life once before, and he wasn't sure he could do it again.

He thought of Rodney and Elizabeth. They had to be at least as afraid as he was feeling. Elizabeth was smart and strong, stronger than John, but she didn't have any weapons, hadn't been trained by Evan like John had. And Rodney – he was too smart for his own good, too quick to mouth off. They'd probably already hurt him.

Dammit. No. Not Rodney. Please.

Atlantis let him know that Rodney was still alive and mostly unharmed. He wanted to know what 'mostly' meant, but he didn't dare ask Atlantis for details, because his hands were shaking badly as it was.

John reached the uncoupling station and paused, scanned the area. Found the perfect place to hunker down and hide till Evan arrived and reversed the Genii ambush.

Part of him was screaming, warning him to run away, hide, stay somewhere safe. Lie down and play dead.

He checked over his weapons one last time. He refused to lie down and play dead. But he would be lying in wait.

Those bastards who hurt Rodney would never know what hit them.


End file.
